WATERVLIET — The City Council will go ahead with a rezoning vote Tuesday night that could lead to the demolition of St. Patrick's Church as a grassroots organization claimed Monday it would be illegal.

Citizens for St. Patrick's said that the City Council has no "lawful reason" to hold a special meeting Tuesday night to vote on rezoning the historic church property from residential to business.

Paul Goldman, the city's special counsel, said the city has met all of the legal notice requirements to hold the meeting. The special meeting was announced and approved at the City Council's Nov. 15 meeting and a legal advertisement was printed.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the city senior center at 15th Street and Broadway.

The city released the environmental assessment form for the project and the accompanying resolutions Monday afternoon.

The citizens group also said that these documents had not been available, that the council has not responded to neighbors' petitions to require a unanimous vote to approve the rezoning and questioned whether Nigro Companies controls all the parcels to be rezoned.

"How can the public be expected to intelligently participate in municipal decision making if the city does not meet its legal responsibilities for disclosing information?" Christine Bulmer, a spokeswoman for Citizens for St. Patrick's, said in a statement.

"What is the huge rush to make a decision two days before Thanksgiving on a project that has been pending since April?" Bulmer stated.

John Nigro said his firm has control of all of the parcels. He also said that the city has fulfilled the legal obligations for calling the meeting.

Nigro Companies is seeking the rezoning of the 3.5-acre parcel on 19th Street in order to raze the buildings on the site and make way for a 40,200-square-foot Price Chopper supermarket and two smaller commercial buildings.

The developer plans to knock down the church, rectory, school and six residences on the site.